Media Monitoring: 18th – 24th September

Urgent awareness gap: 1 in 3 Europeans unfamiliar with cystitis, half unaware women are most at risk

• A new international study has uncovered a concerning lack of public understanding about cystitis and urinary tract infections (UTIs) –  common health issues that disproportionately affect women.
• The findings, which also highlight widespread misconceptions about prevention and treatment, underscore the urgent need for education to combat rising antibiotic resistance.
• In a survey of over 3,000 adults across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, 35% of respondents could not correctly define cystitis as a bladder infection, with some confusing it for a skin condition or even food allergies. Among younger adults aged 18–24, fewer than half (45%) were able to identify cystitis correctly.

Leukaemia UK: one in four leukaemia patients experienced a delay in diagnosis

• For acute leukaemia, the most aggressive forms of leukaemia, delays were largely found at the primary care level.
• This includes delay in escalation after presenting to a GP with symptoms (28%), a delay in escalation after multiple GP visits (21%) and a delay in escalation following an abnormal blood count (15%).
• One-year mortality was 67% for patients diagnosed in an emergency setting, compared to 48% for those diagnosed in a non-emergency setting.
• In acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), delays in diagnosis cost the NHS an estimated £1.7m in avoidable healthcare activity across GP, outpatient, and hospital services in the three months before and six months after diagnosis

Simple blood tests identify pregnant women at risk of serious complications from high blood pressure in Sierra Leone

• Two simple blood tests could help to predict which pregnant women with high blood pressure are at risk of serious complications, including seizures, stillbirth and newborn death, a new study conducted in Sierra Leone has found.
• The study is the first to show how such tests, which are simple to perform and give results within 30 minutes, could help to improve safety for mothers and babies in pregnancies affected by high blood pressure in settings where maternity and neonatal care resources are limited.
• Led by King’s College London in collaboration with the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Sierra Leone and published in Hypertension, the study included 488 pregnant women admitted to hospital with suspected pre-eclampsia – a pregnancy condition that causes high blood pressure and protein in the urine, and can lead to life-threatening complications for mother and baby.

Gene tests for newborns as part of national study

• Test for more than 200 rare genetic conditions are being offered for newborn babies as part of a national study.
• Sunderland Royal Hospital and South Tyneside District Hospital in South Shields are among the 47 hospitals so far taking part in the Generation Study.
• The project, led by Genomics England alongside NHS England, aims to screen 100,000 newborns to identify rare conditions earlier and enable research into genes and health.

The Guardian view on Merck’s exit: Britain’s biopharma strategy stalls in the face of China’s rise

• When Merck abruptly scrapped its billion-pound London research hub last week, critics blamed Britain’s lacklustre support for life sciences and a Scrooge-like grip on NHS drug prices. But one important factor may have been missed. That Merck, which is also cutting jobs elsewhere – 6,000 globally – is recalibrating not just in response to the UK or the US, but to China.

OGT and QIAGEN announce partnership that unlocks a complete sample to report workflow for SureSeq NGS panels

• The new co-marketing and distribution partnership enables SureSeq™ NGS panel customers to purchase QIAGEN’s tertiary analysis software QIAGEN Clinical Insight (QCI^®) Interpret as part of a complete SureSeq NGS workflow solution, unlocking comprehensive analysis from sample to report